


The Muttering Retreats

by wehavefound



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27058729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wehavefound/pseuds/wehavefound
Summary: Jasper Whitlock always loved reconnaissance missions. They were quiet, a chance to get away from the newborn armies for a week or so, find some peace. The universe had other plans for what he should find instead.
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23
Collections: Jalice Week 2020





	The Muttering Retreats

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Jalice Week 2020! This is actually my first posted fic so I hope you all enjoy!

It was 1917, somewhere in the Louisiana coven’s territory. Jasper Whitlock wasn’t normally one to court danger but well, if Maria needed a scout for a week long trip of peace and quiet then clearly none of the stupid fucking newborns would be able to go. Not when the Louisiana coven could find them and gain tactical information of their own instead of the other way round. He loved whenever he had an opportunity for a reconnaissance trip—the quiet of the run, the opportunity to feel only his own emotions, the possibility of a single calm moment without a dust storm of feral newborns bickering amongst themselves or actively maiming each other. It was always risky but at least it gave him the strength he needed to carry on another battle in the endless cycle of war.

Around him, the air was silent. His presence scared away the birds that made up the cacophony of nature and so he was free to wade silently through the swamp, dodging the tree roots sticking up from the brown water.. He was almost there. There was an odd scent he found, came across completely by chance in the middle of nowhere. It was a male vampire scent and yet it was… different. Less potent, as though the vampire in question was old enough that even his scent was petrified. He had never met a vampire older than Maria, although she had told him of the Volturi kings grown old and strange. Nobody lasted that long in the south.

He could hear the other vampire, perhaps a mile out. He was talking, though his scent had been the only one. Stranger yet, he appeared to be describing the swamp around them. To himself? Perhaps he had gone mad. Jasper had never met a mad vampire but then, he never met one who smelled old either. Now that he was close enough he took to the mangrove trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man before he was spotted. It took some maneuvering but finally he could see most of the other vampire through a gap in the trees while staying hidden from the sun himself. He was short and brown haired, dressed in some sort of white garb covered in flecks of mud and carried a limp human curled up into a ball against him. The human seemed to be… alive?

“Little one, look around! See how bright the sunlight shines?” The old vampire said. “Lift your head up and see! You’ll like it!” As he watched the vampire stroked through the human’s short black hair gently, to no avail. He slowly lowered the small girl to the ground in a patch of grass and sat beside her. “They can’t hurt you out here, if only you’d look around to see.”

The girl did not move. She looked to be about 15 or 16 perhaps, although she was short. It was hard to tell given that she was wearing a huge white shirt that covered most of her body, wrapping over her knees like a blanket. Her face was that of a young adult and yet she looked oddly young nestled in among the grass. Was this vampire really breaking the cardinal rule? He couldn’t intend to let this human live, could he? It would be suicide of the highest order. Jasper had to know more, to get closer to this strange one. He had almost no scars and the mere fact that he was letting the girl live showed that this was no warrior. How he had managed to not be part of an army was astounding. You couldn’t simply exist without fighting for land, not in the vampire world. There must be something wrong with him that he did not want to drink the way most vampires did. It was the only rational explanation. 

He quietly dropped from his perch in the tree, leaping softly over the water of the swamp and dodging mud that would leave traces of his presence here. Solid ground was rare here but the water would help to conceal his scent. He would simply take care of the rule breaker, drink the girl, and let the water keep him safe from retribution if a mate existed to attempt so.

Or, he would have if the girl hadn’t stirred ever so slightly.

“Visitor,” she whispered. This was all it took for the other vampire to dart around, seeing Jasper among the mangroves.

“What do you want? Leave us alone!” he snarled. Fuck. Of course he got caught, because he couldn’t have a damn peaceful reconnaissance mission for once in his death. That would be too easy.

“I was passing through and caught your scent. I was curious about the human,” Jasper said, pushing calm and trust at the stranger as hard as he could without touching him. “I mean no harm.”

“She doesn’t know. I didn’t break any rule, she doesn’t understand. The humans, they hurt her brain with their newfound treatments. She doesn’t respond to anything now but she’s gifted.” Interesting. More interesting that he would assume he was being accused of rule breaking before anyone actually did it. But the girl really didn’t seem to even be particularly alive. She still didn’t move, not even with her vampire snarling above her.

“How so?” Jasper asked. It was unusual for a gift to be strong enough to be clearly identifiable in human life, although how much that was due to lack of knowledge he had no idea. Regardless of coaching, the girl must be powerful indeed to even have the potential as a human.

“She sees things. Bits and glimpses of the future. They’ve locked her up, the humans think she’s mad. She used to be so lively but now she doesn’t have any idea what’s happening. She’ll be turned when she’s older. She’s only 16 now. The little trips outside, they help her.” The vampire turned his back on Jasper to sink beside the girl and stroke her hair once more. Suicidal or dumb, it could be either but it was strangely endearing. This vampire wasn’t thinking about how to fight. He was only thinking of this odd tiny human girl. Jasper was covered head to toe in scars and yet his only reaction was to stroke the human’s hair.

Still, the rules were rules and the he had to test if she was pretending or if the other man spoke true. He darted behind him to grab a branch off the ground then snapped it clean across suddenly to make a loud sudden cracking noise a foot away from where she lay. She didn’t so much as blink her unfocused eyes. He threw the splintered wood at the tree from whence it came. Still no reaction. The older vampire watched him carefully, seeming to understand his goal. When he had snapped his fingers five times in her face to continued indifference Jasper was satisfied.

“You see? She is lost to the world. She has seen nothing supernatural except her own gift. I follow the rules. But such a gift is too valuable to be turned too young. She will be turned in time. She leaves her asylum only for short trips.” Jasper considered for a moment. She smelled so sweet but it would be a waste indeed to drink such a promising gift. Maria took only males for her army but a seer? Better to leave on good terms with this vampire, encourage him to bring the girl to Maria later.

And if this strategy was influenced by some long forgotten mercy well, no one needed to know that the genuine goodwill coming from the older man and the quiet joy the girl felt off in her own world influenced his choice in any way. He was the Major and he didn’t give second chances or show kindness. He merely made a strategic decision. This unscarred peculiar vampire could be a very strong fighter after all, unlikely though it was.

“Forget that you ever saw me. I’m not in the habit of letting humans live, or vampires hunting in another’s territory for that matter. Luckily for you I don’t care to defend the Louisiana coven’s land.” Jasper nodded to him. The man smiled back, a true smile that sent waves of relief and gratitude through to his core.

“Godspeed, Major.”

He turned about and ran through the sunset, bringing with him a sense of peace and calm that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He hoped the girl made it until she was ready to be changed. He hoped the bizarre older vampire didn’t get killed before he could change her. And most of all, he found himself hoping he’d meet the pair once more one day.

It wasn’t until he was back in Mexico that Jasper Whitlock realized he had never told them who he was.


End file.
